Will Jennings, the Oscar-winning co-writer behind such hits as “My Coronary heart Will Go On” and “Tears in Heaven,” has died. He was 80.
Jennings died Friday morning at his dwelling in Tyler, Texas, his caregiver, Martha Sherrod, instructed The Hollywood Reporter. He had been in declining well being for the previous 5 – 6 years, she stated.
The lyricist was inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2006, almost 10 years after successful his second Oscar for Celine Dion’s Titanic music “My Coronary heart Will Go On”; he shared the credit score with frequent collaborator James Horner.
He gained his first Academy Award, alongside Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, for An Officer and a Gentleman‘s “Up The place We Belong” in 1983. He was first nominated with Lalo Schifrin in 1981 for “Individuals Alone” from The Competitors. He additionally gained three Grammys, two Golden Globes and a slew of different prizess.
He started his Hollywood profession in 1976 and a 12 months later teamed with composer Richard Kerr to jot down Barry Manilow’s hit “Appears to be like Like We Made It.” The duo reunited for the artist’s high 10 hit, “Someplace within the Night time,” two years later.
Within the early Nineties, Jennings collaborated with Eric Clapton to jot down “Tears in Heaven,” from the 1991 movie, Rush. The music was nominated for a Globe and gained music of the 12 months on the Grammys.
Wilbur Hershel Jennings was born in Kilgore, Texas, on June 27, 1944. Earlier than pursuing a profession in Hollywood, he was a professor at Tyler Junior School in Tyler, Texas, after which at Austin State College, earlier than instructing on the College of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for 3 years.
Over the course of his lyricist profession, he wrote for a lot of artists, together with Whitney Houston, B.B. King, Mariah Carey, Jimmy Buffett, Joe Pattern, Rodney Crowell and Roy Orbison. He additionally collaborated with Steve Winwood on a number of albums, together with Arc of a Diver, Speaking Again to the Night time and Again within the Excessive Life.
He teamed with Carey and Horner to jot down the central music in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, “The place Are You Christmas?,” which was sung by a personality within the movie and by Religion Hill on the finish of it. Jennings and Horner additionally wrote a music for A Lovely Thoughts.
Jennings’ pal, musician Peter Wolf, paid tribute to the composer in a social media put up, writing, “‘A Lot of Good Ones Gone’ … A tragic time, the passing of Will Jennings, a maestro, sensible thoughts and a delicate spirit. Will shared his abilities with me, ever affected person and beneficiant, he was a treasured pal and instructor, enriching my life in so some ways. It was an infinite honor to have labored with such a musical genius for therefore a few years …To cite certainly one of his favourite poets, W.B Yeats,’Assume the place man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such associates.’”
Survivors embody his spouse, Carole, and his sisters, Joyce and Gloria.
Mike Barnes contributed to this report.
